Living With Borders, Not Limits

Living with abstract art invites a certain kind of awareness. It’s not about deciphering meaning or following a narrative. It’s about the quiet alertness that develops when you share space with something that doesn’t ask to be solved. The paintings in Borders Not Limits hold to that kind of presence. Each one is a particular arrangement of form and color, defined by their relationships. There is no need to interpret only to stay long enough to see.

Edges come into focus early. Shapes meet one another with clarity. The lines are direct. They don’t dissolve or waver, but they don’t dominate either. Each form holds its own space. The border is not a limit, but a meeting point. Shapes exist beside each other in full recognition, not in collision or confusion. The compositions feel stable because they are not reaching for resolution. They are complete in their arrangement.

Across the collection, the color shifts. Some paintings move in a softened register. Others hold more contrast. The changes are steady, not abrupt. Each palette feels considered without being controlled. Color moves the eye, not with force but with rhythm. The looking slows, and something opens in that pace. Nothing in the surface demands attention. The paintings remain still, but not static. Something stays in motion inside the quiet.

Texture plays a part, but it doesn’t take the lead. It sits just under the surface, noticeable only in close looking. The paint holds its shape without excess. Edges stay clean. The weight is in the form, not in the mark. The presence of the hand is there, but it doesn’t ask to be seen. These are not paintings of gesture. They don’t lean on energy or expression. They rest in the arrangement itself.

Time with the work changes what is seen. What appears simple does not become complex, but it does become more known. The initial shapes hold, but the space around them starts to shift. Attention finds new alignments. The surface remains, but the experience of it expands. Looking becomes less about seeing and more about staying. The longer the gaze holds, the less it looks for more. What’s there is enough.

Explore Borders Not Limits and collect original artwork online at www.margaretlipsey.com.